LOL...Politics in Cache of the Month Voting...LOL...yeah, like that has never happened before.

Do as you see fit msteffel...announcing the winner "early" because there is no other cache is fine with me...why wait...there isn't a point to waiting in this instance._________________You may only be young once...but I will be immature forever!!!

Do as you see fit msteffel...announcing the winner "early" because there is no other cache is fine with me...why wait...there isn't a point to waiting in this instance.

Agreed. msteffel, you are a volunteer. If you find it volunteer easier and less volunteer time consuming to post the unchangeable winner early, than by all means,do it volunteeringly. Thank you for the volunteer time you give to running the COTM. _________________"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods..." - Lord Byron

Ok, so after considering everyone's input (thanks to everyone for their input) the following will be done going forward:

Starting with April Cache of the Month voting will begin at the beginning of the month and run through the end of the month*.

As for when to announce the Cache of the Month when there is only one nominee - by far the simplest solution is have more than one nominee [cough]. But on those [hopefully rare] occasions when there is only one nominee - it will be noted in the forum that the cache is running unopposed and thus no vote needed that month, the activities of adding the cache to the Cache of the Month winners list and sending the CotM winner an email [with instructions on how to add the CotM winner icon] will be done anytime during that month at the volunteer's discretion [since the winner is known], however the official 'announcement' on the MnGCA main page will be put up at the end of the month in an effort to avoid confusion and add some consistency when look back.

*Note: Due to how the polling works in phpBB (there may be other ways around it that I'm not familiar with) the poll may be open for some time past 11:59:59 pm on the last day of the month. When a poll is open it is set to be open for a certain number of days, so if for some reason the poll can't be open right at 11:59:59 (say a production issue at work, busy with non-caching activities, feel asleep, etc) then there will be some 'bonus' voting time.